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Ohio is hoping to become a greater player in cybersecurity, thanks to a grant from the Ohio
Third Frontier Commission.

The commission approved $5 million to support the Columbus Collaboratory, a partnership
established to help companies perform advanced analytics and improve cybersecurity.

In addition to the Third Frontier grant, the Columbus Collaboratory will receive a $20 million
investment from its partners: American Electric Power, Battelle, Cardinal Health, Huntington Bank,
L Brands, Nationwide and OhioHealth.

“This project showcases what Ohio Third Frontier does best — bringing companies together to
solve high-tech problems while creating jobs,” said David Goodman, director of the Ohio Development
Services Agency and chairman of the Ohio Third Frontier Commission, in a statement. The Columbus
Collaboratory is projected to create 100 jobs during the next five years.

“The Collaboratory is a promising opportunity to showcase the strengths of the central Ohio
business community,” said Martin Inglis, executive vice president and chief operating officer of
Battelle, in a statement.

“By drawing on our collective capabilities and with an eye toward the future, we can leverage
employment and education through aligned and innovative approaches to data analytics and
cybersecurity.”

The Columbus Collaboratory grant is part of more than $15.8 million that Third Frontier, the
state’s technology-based economic-development initiative, plans to invest this year.

Other money that Third Frontier will grant to central Ohio technology organizations
includes:

• A $50,000 award to Ohio State University to fund research for an improved method of cancer
diagnosis.

• A $100,000 grant to Simple-Fill Inc. to develop and test a new fueling system for compressed
natural-gas vehicles. Last week, Simple-Fill became the first investment by the Technology Concept
Fund, a fund created to help Ohio State University turn technologies into commercial
applications.

• A $100,000 grant to 3Bar Biologics Inc. of Dublin to further develop proprietary agricultural
micro-organisms to increase crop yield.

• A $100,000 grant to QuTel Inc. for developing a prototype of a technology that can help
improve the performance of semiconductor chips while significantly lowering their power
consumption.